Washington -- The upset of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor by a Tea Party insurgent has planted terror in the GOP over immigration reform, left California Republicans who favor an overhaul in an isolated position, and put a Central Valley Republican directly in line for the second-highest job in the House.

Cantor's loss will reverberate in California: The contest for his leadership job pits Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, against at least two conservative Texans. Silicon Valley loses an ally in Cantor, who cultivated close ties to the valley's political money. And the party's likely rightward shift on immigration poses dangers to California Republicans in heavily Latino districts.

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Immigration reform

The chances for sweeping immigration changes this year were all but buried long before Cantor's primary defeat Tuesday. But challenger David Brat's accusation during the Virginia campaign that Cantor favored amnesty because of his support for piecemeal reforms is widely expected to make most House Republicans even more leery of taking on the issue.

California Republicans, particularly from Central Valley districts with large Latino constituencies, have been among the few in their party to embrace a comprehensive reform of immigration laws along the lines that passed the Senate a year ago. In the wake of Cantor's defeat, Rep. David Valadao, R-Hanford (Kings County), insisted, "Immigration reform is not dead."

Immigration reform advocates point to GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham's easy primary victory in South Carolina on Tuesday as evidence that immigration was not necessarily Cantor's undoing. Graham is a longtime backer of immigration reform.

But even Republicans who think the media are overstating immigration's role in Cantor's loss concede that the party will be even more timid on the matter now.

"It's certainly a come-to-Jesus moment for House Republicans in terms of what's going to happen with the prospects for immigration reform between now and the 2014 elections," said Republican strategist Ford O'Connell.

Michael Eggman, the Democratic challenger to GOP Rep. Jeff Denham of Turlock (Stanislaus County), leaped on the immigration angle of Cantor's defeat, accusing the ousted leader of talking "out of both sides of his mouth on immigration reform," and Denham of going along. In the Central Valley, both farmers and Latino voters are strong supporters of an immigration overhaul.

Working the valley

For a Virginia Republican, Cantor had a high profile in California. He frequently visited the state to raise money - $339,000 in the last cycle alone, according to OpenSecrets.org, which tracks political cash.

Much of that came from Silicon Valley, which Cantor and fellow GOP "young gun" Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin cultivated by selling the GOP as the party of entrepreneurial tax breaks and fewer regulations.

In 2011, Cantor visited Facebook in Palo Alto and starred on a panel discussion with the firm's chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, saying he wanted to tell younger audiences about the GOP's "optimistic message" for the country and business.

In 2012, Cantor took a much publicized ride in Google's driverless car.

He also had regular contacts with TechNet, a regional advocacy group. And it paid off: Donors from the Internet and computer industries gave $131,000 to his campaigns, including political action committees, according to OpenSecrets.

Democrats have been raising money in Silicon Valley since at least the Clinton administration - President Obama will visit Los Altos in July for the second time in three months - and have been far more effective than Republicans in using social media and outreach at the grassroots level in the tech mecca.

Aaron Ginn, a conservative tech insider and GOP activist from San Mateo, said Cantor's fall holds a lesson for the GOP on the tech front.

"This is what happens when your data goes wrong - and this is a classic example of why you need to get serious tech people involved who have done this stuff and test your assumptions," Ginn said. Republicans can't "just assume what it was last year is what it will be this year."

California vs. Texas

While Cantor had eyes on becoming House speaker, he was disliked not only, as it turns out, by his own constituents, but also by a healthy contingent of his fellow Republicans.

Such is not the case for McCarthy, who stands directly behind Cantor in the leadership hierarchy and will try for the majority leader's job.

The Bakersfield Republican already faces challenges from at least two conservative Texans, Reps. Pete Sessions and Jeb Hensarling. Some red state Republicans argue that their blue state brethren are too vulnerable and too moderate to lead a party turning rightward with each election.

That would especially hold true in California, where districts are no longer contorted along party lines to ensure the re-election of incumbents and the top-two primary forces candidates to appeal to other parties' voters.

However, California has its own Tea Party insurgency, led by Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, who finished just out of the running in the June 3 gubernatorial primary despite having almost no campaign funding and facing near-universal opposition from the Republican establishment, which lined up behind former Treasury official Neel Kashkari.

Donnelly said Wednesday that the California and Virginia campaigns suggested that "the party has gone to war with its own grass roots" and said his backers were especially angry over attack mailers calling him a divisive fringe candidate.

"They feel it was directed at them personally," Donnelly said. "And they're telling me that if you're pro-life, pro-Second Amendment, pro-family ... that you're in their crosshairs."

McCarthy's seat is safe - he ran unopposed June 3 - but he's had more than his share of stumbles as the GOP's whip, the No. 3 post in the House who is responsible for counting votes.

Republican leaders have repeatedly been caught by surprise on big votes, forced to pull bills from the floor at the last minute, or worse, be embarrassed by relying on House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco to pass legislation with Democratic votes.

Yet while McCarthy may be viewed as weak, he is well liked on both sides of the aisle and can tap a deep fundraising base in California, where - like Cantor - he is a frequent visitor to Silicon Valley.

Cantor was considered a Machiavellian plotter, ready to knife Speaker John Boehner as the occasion demanded. Eventually this reputation proved his undoing, as voters threw him out in part because he was seen as putting his district second to his Washington maneuvering.

"McCarthy is the logical choice" to move into the majority leader post, O'Connell, the Republican strategist, said. "The one thing he has going for him that he's well liked by his House colleagues, and that goes a long way in these fierce leadership battles."